Mac vs. PC: The Ultimate Lab Test for New Desktops & Laptops

Popular Mechanics ^ | May 2008 | By Glenn Derene

[rmlew]

Run the test on actually comparable machines with the same RAM and processors. It is not difficult if you have the money.

[discostu]

There are benefits of suckling at the MS teet, lots of legally free software too. Of course you can still fix it, and the screen did tell you basically how to. So it’s not like a person is flying completely blind. XP was the last OS before the big security push, and subsequently the last version of Windows where by default you could double click and icon and the app would run without first asking for a note from your mother.

[Swordmaker]

. . . I noticed a whole string of Mac postings with your name on all of them recently so I clicked on your tag and saw nothing but Mac VS. PC war nonsense. . . However, your postings seem to be directed towards getting people arguing Mac VS. PC."

I would not characterize them that way... I post informative threads that Mac users and people considering switching to Macs find useful.

Strange thing is that most negative comments on this thread are from Windows users bashing their own computers. Then there are a few Windows users who always appear to make snarky comments about Mac users and their level of computer knowledge. . . or sexual orientation. It is not started by Mac users.

Also, if you think this is a Mac Vs. PC war thread, then you haven't seen one.

[Swordmaker]

Well, it’s not my site, if the mods don’t mind the Mac v. PC fights, then I have no place to complain.

By the way, the thanks I've gotten from fellow Freepers far outnumber the complaints. I think your semi-complaint is about the fourth I seen in over three years of managing the Mac Ping List, compared to at least a hundred thanks.

[Spktyr]

Actually... the screen on the OEM versions of XP SP 2 don’t tell you that running as admin is a bad thing. They don’t tell you *anything* about it.

The *very* last retail pressings of XP did, but they’re rare.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Sounds like your costly AV and firewall weren’t worth the money and your kids were hanging out in the dark corners of the internet and were running as admin."

Those dark corners are called game sites.

As to my wife, she has a weakness for "free" animated cursors and such. Sigh...

As to the AV and firewall stuff, you are correct. And regarding running Windows as admin, doesn't everybody? [grin]

[discostu]

It wouldn’t surprise me there’s nothing on the OEM, in theory if everything goes well only the guys at the OEM company will see the install screens on those machine, and they should just be following the script provided by their bosses. They probably only read enough of the screen to know where they are in the script. Might as well just put screen numbers on.

Of course if people would just stop double clicking on every damn thing most of the rest of the security measures would be unnecessary. Most of the stuff that runs rampant through PCs does its infection at the request of the user. People need to learn when in doubt scan, or better yet just delete it, most mystery files that come your way are no good.

[tacticalogic]

Strange thing is that most negative comments on this thread are from Windows users bashing their own computers. Then there are a few Windows users who always appear to make snarky comments about Mac users and their level of computer knowledge. . . or sexual orientation.

I'm just not crazy about the idea of having to buy their hardware to run what's essentially x86 *nix.

[dangus]

That was my implication.

[discostu]

Were they game sites or were they “game” sites. There are a lot of game sites out here that can’t be trusted, they’re warez site or crack sites or otherwise engaged in bad stuff sites. The first rule of the internet, regardless of computer type or OS: if you know the place you’re getting this from is engaged in illegal activity don’t blindly trust it. I freely admit to not always being the most law abiding computer user in the world, and when I hang out in the dark corners step 1 is make sure my AV is up to date and step 2 is scan what I just downloaded. Trust nothing, keep your laser handy.

Yup, know about the evil animated cursors, the blight of every IT department in the world. The malware Trojan specifically designed to get women, I’ve never heard of a guy getting hit by these emoticons seem to be a female thing. But it’s OK guys get nailed by fake codec packs, for viewing porn of course, there’s a nerd comedy routine in that I’m sure.

Yes we almost all do run as admin, heck even I do most of the time, I know the rules but I’m just as lazy as the next guy. I’m real strong on following the REST of the rules (especially the having good AV and firewall) to make up for it, I trade CPU cycles for personal effort.

[tacticalogic]

Run the test on actually comparable machines with the same RAM and processors. It is not difficult if you have the money.

I imagine you could get noticeably better performance out of Vista if you knew exactly what hardware it would be running on, and could tune it specifically for that hardware during development, too.

[Spktyr]

That’s may as may be. Then what excuse does the retail version have? You know, the one in a box from MS?

[discostu]

Because it’s the last OS before the big security push, and they want it to go away and make room for Vista the pig.

[Spktyr]

But they made the big security push by SP1 - and they were telling us all to stop running as admin by then. Then they had SP2, long before Vista was out, and they told us not to run as admin. BUT THEY ALL STILL DEFAULT TO NEW USERS AS ADMIN.

[discostu]

Only that first wave, new users made once the install is done default to power users. It’s MS, they blow it sometimes, they blow it a lot. Probably somebody just forgot about that screen in the install. I’m in QA that kind of thing happens, we make some change in how one section is going to work, but of course like any complex app (we have server, thick client, web client plus a couple dozen connector to 3rd party apps) many of our “one section” things can be accessed in a bunch of different place, we think we changed them all, we ship, 2 weeks later some tech support guy comes over and says “how come the UI for blah blah blah is so different in the web client than the thick”, and I’m stuck with “oh s#!+ the web client” for my only answer.

In the end we’re still only human.

[Spktyr]

Um, no. It doesn't. I just fired up my near-virgin copy of XP Pro SP2 (as a VM on my Mac, I should add) that I keep around as a backup file. I immediately updated it with everything Windows Update says it should have. It's so virgin that all it has is Windows, antivirus/malware products, and a proprietary database on it. That's it. At the point at which this image was created, I hadn't even set a password on my own account.

Guess what it *doesn't* do when you create a new user? Here's ALL the steps that a retail copy of XP Pro SP 2 does when you create a new user via the control panel.

The initial control panel:

Click on "create a new account," and you get this, asking you to name the new user.

You hit the "next" button, and you get this. Not seeing any "Power User" selection. Not seeing ANY explanation of why running as admin might be a problem. AM seeing it default to "admin."

Hit "Create Account" and it dumps you back to the User Accounts control panel. At NO time does it even ask you to set a password! Nor does it explain why you should set one anyway!

You keep making excuses and backing off points. HERE IS SOLID PROOF THAT WHAT MOST PEOPLE ARE SEEING FROM MICROSOFT IS NOT WHAT YOU ARE DESCRIBING. I have an MSDN image (read: the customized version they send to developers that cons them into thinking, "Windows isn't so bad, why is everyone complaining?") sitting around too - I'd put that up as comparison too, but I'd actually have to care first. I think I've proved my point. You have failed, please go crawl back into your little hole at Redmond now.

[Spktyr]

Oh, and before you dismiss that as "well, that's just Home Edition, not Pro, you must be mistaken," look at this.

[discostu]

That’s not how it is on my machine, like I said before on mine it defaults to Power User.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3127/2420457513_4707530795.jpg?v=

And you really need to cvalm down and stick that “discostu is a liar” stuff right up your ass.

[Centurion2000]

There’s the problem. They should have done a comparison between Mac and XP. Vista SUCKS.

[Spktyr]

Aha, I see what you’re doing. You’re using the lusrmgr.msc snap-in to create a new user. You’re NOT using the User Accounts control panel.

Most people have *no* idea that lusrmgr exists. It is also NOT the way that Microsoft tells people to do it outside of a domain.

You fail.